Samsung Electronics Co. unveiled the much-anticipated Galaxy Gear smartwatch ahead of the IFA tradeshow in Berlin. So what can it actually do? Here’s a rundown of the key specs:

Samsung’s Galaxy Gear

Samsung

It’s not an independent device: you need a Galaxy Note 3 smartphone or the new Galaxy 10.1 tablet to operate it. Samsung says it has plans to make it compatible with the Galaxy S4 smartphone and the Note II later down the road.

Priced at $299, it’s approximately twice the price of the Pebble watch. But it’s actually cheaper than Samsung’s last watch phone which was sold for 450 euros in France back in 2009.

It doesn’t look anything like the designs portrayed in a patent filing the company submitted earlier this year to the Korean authorities, which had drawings of a watchphone “made of flexible displays and elastic materials that can be used while wrapped around a wrist or flattened out.” The Galaxy Gear looks closer to Sony Corp.’s upgraded SmartWatch released in June.

The body consists of a plastic band with a metal clutch and has a rectangular 1.6-inch screen. The battery, which is built into the device and isn’t removable, will last a little longer than one day for an average user, according to Samsung.

It has a 1.9 megapixel camera–not quite up to the level of high-end smartphones. But Samsung claims it is to be one of the key features, allowing users to take photos instantly to better remember things like your parking space, an interesting scenery or restaurant. For privacy, however, it has a loud snapshot sound which that can’t be shut off when taking photos. Samsung said this is to prevent it from being used to spy on others.

Users can send and receive calls through the device which, according to Samsung, will come particularly handy when a user’s hands are tied doing things like house chores or driving. It’s basically a speaker phone on the wrist. It can be used to check text messages and e-mail.

The device runs on Google Inc.’s Android operating system, but it doesn’t quite have the full Android experience as the apps have been customized to fit the device’s small 1.6-inch touch screen. It comes with 60 to 70 pre-loaded apps.